I've been accepted to stay long-term at Ajahn Brahm's monastery, on the path to ordaining. (one year as anagarika, then hopefully apply to be accepted as a novice.)

Great news, although I am little apprehensive.I stayed at Bodhinyana Monastery, Western Australia, for 9 days and joined in with the three anagarikas in preparing food, cleaning up, washing endless dishes, sweeping the monastery, and of course meditation.In between long bouts of dish-washing, the main highlight was the opportunity to drive Bhante Sujato and several bhikkhunis to the women's monastery at Dhammasara (six hundred acres of forest!!). I didn't say much on the drive but I got an impression the guy. Verdict: awesome.And I had a brief interview with the man himself, Ajahn Brahm. I was super-nervous.I asked him if I could get on the waiting list to stay at the monastery long term, with the intention of becoming an anagarika.He asked me three questions: Can you cook? Do you have a driver's license?Can you dig ditches?

I said yes to all three, but added I was only an adequate cook. He laughed, and said 2.5 out of 3 was good enough.He looked at he other monks and they nodded and said Yes also, and that was it, I'm on the waiting list.The guest monk says I have priority on the list as I am living locally, have stayed at the monastery already, know the monks a bit, and have no visa issues to worry about. Usually the waiting list is around 8 months long, but they said I could get in faster... hopefully.So, fingers crossed, I may spend the rains there and take the white. If they are full for vassa, I'll find another monastery in Australia for the rains, and come back to Bodhinyana after the vassa when they have room.

The fact that it is led by Ajahn Brahm was not a factor in choosing Bodhinyana. His dhamma talks are great, he clearly has attainments of various kinds, and he is caring and wise with his monks, but I was a little put off by the malarkey and the controversy.I was also put off by the fact that he's a superstar. I am star-struck and get shy when he walks by. Also he's very often away from the monastery doing things overseas. But the other senior monks take over seamlessly when he does leave, so that's ok.

So, why choose that particular monastery? To be honest, at the beginning I was going to steer clear of it due to the bhikkhuni controversy. But having been there and seen what the sangha is like there, I was converted.The community, the monastic sangha, is the main reason.There are 6 anagarikas, 5 novices, and the other 22 are venerables and ajahns. There is a lot of potential for learning different aspects of the life from different style monks. There are meditation monks with jhanas and attainments, etc. You don't tend to see too much of them.There are practical monks who are building the next lot of kutis and maintain the old ones.There are study monks, teacher monks, and writer monks, such as the profoundly knowledgeable and sharp Bhante Sujato.There is a monk who specialises in vinaya, and sutta studies.There's a computer monk who is doing something to a next-generation Access-To-Insight type website coming soon.There's an angry monk who tells people off. (ermm, maybe it's good to have an abrasive bastard around to help grind those rough edges off! Looking on the bright side here.) EDIT: actually, after getting to know him better, he is very kind underneath, just gruff on the surface.And there is a social monk who often sits around and chats about dhamma with the laypeople. Lots of variety to learn from.

Last edited by James the Giant on Fri Aug 15, 2014 4:01 am, edited 3 times in total.

Then, saturated with joy, you will put an end to suffering and stress.SN 9.11

Bhikkhus, if you develop and make much this one thing, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction. What is it? It is recollecting the Enlightened One. If this single thing is recollected and made much, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction.Anguttara-Nikaya: Ekanipata: Ekadhammapali: PañhamavaggaBuddhanussatiSCVSMVMMBS

Actually yep, there were heaps before Ajahn Brahm got really strict and put up signs saying it was BAD KARMA to dump unwanted cats there. Did you hear about that? Buddhists were bringing up their problem cats and leaving them.Now there's only one cat, and it's not very friendly. The kangaroos are more friendly, but they have huge black claws and are slightly scary when they growl.

Then, saturated with joy, you will put an end to suffering and stress.SN 9.11

Yeah I remember hearing about cats getting dumped there. Typical in many Asian monasteries and temples too: cats, dogs, unwanted statues of the Buddha and local deities and I was told once upon a time, unwanted babies as well, as if they are a halfway house...

Bhikkhus, if you develop and make much this one thing, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction. What is it? It is recollecting the Enlightened One. If this single thing is recollected and made much, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction.Anguttara-Nikaya: Ekanipata: Ekadhammapali: PañhamavaggaBuddhanussatiSCVSMVMMBS

Well done, James!A big congratulations for you, my friend.A word of caution - keep your distance from the kangaroos. They can get agro and do people a lot of damage. The same with other endemic wildlife and feral animals.I look forward to hearing more about your adventures.kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

That sounds awesome! I hope you live a fruitful Brahmacariya there and that you realize nibbana in this very life!!!

About the Kangaroos, there's a talk on dhammaloka where Ajahn Brahmali talks about how he always puts his leftovers out to feed the Kangaroos and that one Kangaroo kept coming closer until one time it just walked right up and tried to grab food out of the Ajahn's bowl. Venerable Brahmali covered the bowl with his arms and then the Kangaroo tried to pull apart his arms until finally Brahmali (who was in a state of minor shock at how much gaul this kangaroo had) got up and pushed the kangaroo away from him. Just thought I'd share the story.

"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."

"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

There are meditation monks with jhanas and attainments, etc. You don't tend to see too much of them.

I hope this isn't an important reason for you.

Reason being that it was one of the main reasons I chose a particular monastery in Sri Lanka and later an important reason why I changed monasteries and the same reason I became disillusioned in both cases. You just cannot put your eggs in this basket because inevitably you may turn out to be wrong. There's no guarantee anyone at Bodhinyana has attainments, and every time I hear a lay person declare it with utmost confidence I cringe a little. Maybe some of them have got Jhanas, I think that much is inferable. But there's no such thing as an educated guess when it comes to whether someone is an Ariya.

Other than that, much mudita Thoughts will be with you

mettaJack

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

My two cents': remember that monks are human beings. Don't expect perfection from anyone. Of course you will meet many inspiring guides and practitioners of great virtue and wisdom, but remain centred. Remember the three refuges: the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Ariya Sangha - and that last refuge, while wonderful and still extant on this planet I believe, is hard to actually pinpoint in any particular individual.

I wish you the adventure of a lifetime.

This I say to you: Good luck to all assembled here! Dig up the root of craving, like one in search of the fragrant root of the birana grass. Let not Mara crush you again and again, as a flood crushes a reed.

Dhp 337

Go James!

Then the Blessed One, picking up a tiny bit of dust with the tip of his fingernail, said to the monk, "There isn't even this much form...feeling...perception...fabrications...consciousness that is constant, lasting, eternal, not subject to change, that will stay just as it is as long as eternity." (SN 22.97)